Whatchagonnado strong, goes gate to wire

Driver Chris Page gave Whatchagonnado (Fear The Dragon) a gate-to-wire harness racing effort in securing a 1:52.3 win to take the featured $18,000 conditioned pace Friday night (Dec. 12) at Hollywood Gaming at Dayton Raceway.

Page had the sophomore pacer on his toes and outsprinted Rockinpoppin (Tyler Smith) to the quarter in :27.1.

Bars And Notes (Trace Tetrick) was the first to challenge the leader at the half in :56.4 and was a half-length back at the three-quarters in 1:24.1.

Whatchagonnado used a 28.2 final panel to record the ¾ length win over the pocket sitting Rockinpoppin.

Odds On Mad Hatter (Luke Hanners) passed a tiring Bars And Notes for third.

WHATCHAGONNADO REPLAY

The Fear The Dragon gelding, who has won two straight, is owned by the partnership of Burke Racing Stable and Weaver Bruscemi.

Page would go on to win four during the 14-race card.

In the $16,000 conditioned pace, Dialogue (Tyler Smith) crossed the line first, but was soon disqualified and placed seventh for taking up and causing confusion with the trailing field.

A trio of pacers were sent for the early lead.

Tyler Smith had Dialogue on top, ahead of Legendary Doowrah (Wyatt Farmer) with Nocrynintheuber (Chris Page) in the three-hole at the quarter in :26.4.

Nocrynintheuber suffered a break in stride due to broken equipment and was pulled up.

As the top two came by the grandstand the first time, Smith was able to get a :30 second quarter.

Ahva Sholum (Jared Finn) came first up and pressured the leader at the three-quarters in 1:24.2.

Dialogue sprinted home and crossed the line 2 ½ lengths clear of Legendary Doowrah and another quarter-length better than Ahva Sholum.

Legendary Doowrah was elevated to the top spot.

He is owned by Edwin Harwood and conditioned by Will Johnson.

Saturday’s card (Dec. 13) was cancelled due to a impeding snowstorm. Racing will resume on Tuesday (Dec. 16) at Dayton Raceway with a 4:00 pm post time. Free past performance pages are available at hollywooddaytonraceway.com.

For complete race results, click here: US Trotting results.

By Jay Wolf for Hollywood Gaming at Dayton Raceway